Rider-propelled wheeled vehicles generally known as skateboards are known to comprise a footrest board associated with a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels.
Typically, the wheels are mounted to rotate about respective axes of rotation, that are stationary with respect to the footrest board, whereby the user is required to continuously thrust off the ground with one of his/her feet, with a given thrust frequency, to propel the vehicle forward.
As a result, this kind of vehicles is only designed for play or sports purposes, and cannot be considered as a light city vehicle proper, adapted for used also for relatively long times and distances.
Furthermore, the footrest board generally has a narrow and elongate shape, ensuring improved aerodynamic properties, but affecting comfort, because the user is required to place his/her feet transverse to the longitudinal direction of the board.
WO2010138227 discloses a skateboard that partially improves the above configurations, by allowing the vehicle to be used without pushing off of the ground, by synchronized action of the lower limbs of the user.
In order to achieve this effect, both front and rear wheels have their respective axes of rotation susceptible of oscillating about corresponding pivot axes inclined with respect to the support board.
Particularly, each pair of wheels has a common oscillation axis, whereby when one of the wheels of the pair moves forward, the other moves rearward.
Furthermore, the wheel support means are configured to allow each wheel to alternately move forward/away from the support surface, thereby allowing the vehicle to be propelled forward due to the pivotal motion imparted by the user and to the resulting alternate lateral inclination of the support board.
Nevertheless, the resulting forward motion is a serpentine motion with sharp curves, which limits use as a city vehicle, because it does not allow the user to assume a stable position, namely at increased speeds.
Furthermore, the forward motion also requires the user's feet to be placed in a longitudinally offset position which affects riding comfort.